If we all pattern our behavior after the worst examples available to us then all is truly lost.

Friday, July 15, 2005

Support the Troops; Boycott their Corporate Sponsors

Maybe it's because I've lived in Navy towns for so long I seldom notice how much advertising is aimed at the military. Maybe I've been so outraged at the blatant war profiteering of Halliburton that I haven't seen who else is getting away with it until now. Or maybe I haven't noticed what this particular company has been up to because I've been a big fan of its products for so long.

An old Navy buddy sent an MPG file this morning. You may have seen it. (I may have seen it before too, and it just didn't register against the background of the rest of the phony patriotism we see everywhere these days.)

This particular video takes place in the waiting area of an airport; I’m not sure which one, it may have been a set on a soundstage. People sit around, doing what people do while they wait to board their flights. Someone stands and starts clapping. Folks start looking around, and then everybody stands and applauds. Through the concourse amble a group of soldiers--presumably just home from the war. Boy soldiers and girl soldiers. White, black, Hispanic, Arab, and Asian soldiers. A pretty red haired little girl in her mother's arms--a pretty red haired little girl the soldiers have ostensibly been overseas protecting--stares at them with eyes full of wonder.

As the soldiers pass into the baggage claim area, the shot fades to black. "Thank You" appears on the screen. Then the logo for Anheuser Busch .

And it hit me: these bastards are using the war and the troops to sell beer.

Well, it took me long enough to notice, but I'm clued in now. This business of using the military and firemen and policemen and you name it to sell products is the most crass example of exploitive commercialization I've seen in this country to date; a neo-con job on par with anything Karl Rove's cowboys have come up with.

I won't be drinking Budweiser again any time soon. Looks like I'll have to change to Coors. Oh, no: I just remembered, Joseph Coors was a neo-con man himself. (Coors was a key figure in the establishment of The Heritage Foundation, one of the most visible (and heinous) neoconservative think tanks.

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Commander Jeff Huber, U.S. Navy (retired) was a naval flight officer who commanded an aircraft squadron and was operations officer of USS Theodore Roosevelt, the carrier that fought the Kosovo War. He earned a master-of-arts degree in post-modern imperialism at the U.S. Naval War College where many of his essays became required student reading. Jeff’s weekly satires on U.S. foreign policy high jinks appear at Antiwar.com and his critically applauded novel Bathtub Admirals (Kunati Books), a lampoon on America's rise to global dominance, is on sale now. Jeff lives with dogs in a house by the beach on Chesapeake Bay in Virginia, and in the summer he has a nice tan.